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Dayton, Ohio

Encyclopedia : D : DA : DAY : Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States with a population of 166,179 (2000). It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. The Greater Dayton area or Dayton metropolitan area encompasses a number of contiguous communities outside Dayton city proper, including Vandalia, Trotwood, Kettering, Centerville and Beavercreek, with a population of 848,153 (2000). Dayton is situated within the Miami Valley region of Ohio, just north of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.

Dayton plays host to significant industrial, aerospace, and research activity and is known for the many technical innovations and inventions developed there. The city was the home of the Wright Brothers, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and entrepreneur John H. Patterson. Dayton is nicknamed the Gem City, and is also sometimes referred to as the "Birthplace of Aviation."

Dayton Sister Cities International supports efforts for business and cultural development in Augsburg, Germany; Belgrade, Serbia; Oiso, Japan; Monrovia, Liberia; Holon, Israel and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Contents

Name and history

Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796 by a small group of US settlers seven years before the admission of Ohio to the Union in 1803. The town was incorporated in 1805 and given its name after Jonathan Dayton, a captain in the American Revolutionary War and signer of the U.S. Constitution. Dayton was the home of aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright who funded their aviation endeavors with the proceeds of a successful bicycle shop in Dayton. It was also the home of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and of John H. Patterson [1], who founded a successful cash register business in Dayton, National Cash Register Corporation, or NCR, which eventually diversified and was corporation of great importance in the United States during the mid- to late-20th century.

In 1797, Daniel C. Cooper laid out the Mad River Road, the first overland connection between Cincinnati, Ohio and Dayton. This opened up the "Mad River Country" at Dayton and the upper Miami Valley to settlement.

Dayton in 1870
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Dayton in 1870

The Miami and Erie Canal built in the 1830s connected the Dayton commerce from Lake Erie via the Great Miami River and served as the principal route of transportation for western Ohio until the 1850s.

The catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of March 1913 severely affected much of the city, stimulated the growth of suburban communities outside central Dayton in areas lying further from the Miami River and on higher ground, and led to the establishment of the Miami Conservancy District in 1914. The flood remains an event of note in popular memory and local histories. The high waters damaged some of the Wright Brothers' glass plate photographic negatives of their glider flights at Kitty Hawk and power flights over Huffman Prairie near Dayton.

Nicknames

Dayton's primary nickname is the "Gem City". The origin of the name is no longer clear; it appears to stem either from a well-known racehorse named "Gem" that hailed from Dayton, or from descriptions of the city likening it to a gem. The most likely origin appears to be an 1840s article in a Cincinnati newspaper which reads
In a small bend of the Great Miami River, with canals on the east and south, it can be fairly said, without infringing on the rights of others, that Dayton is the gem of all our interior towns. It possesses wealth, refinement, enterprise, and a beautiful country, beautifully developed.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) later acknowledged the nickname in his poem, "Toast to Dayton", which contains this stanza:
She shall ever claim our duty,
For she shines—the brightest gem
That has ever decked with beauty
Dear Ohio's diadem.
The nickname "Birthplace of Aviation" is also frequently seen due to Dayton being the hometown of the Wright Brothers. In their bicycle shop in Dayton, the Wrights developed the principles of aerodynamics, and designed and constructed a number of gliders and portions of their first airplanes. After their first manned flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wrights continued testing at nearby Huffman Prairie. [link]

Notable facts

The city has a rich heritage of inventions and innovations, with more patents per capita than any other city in the nation. Some of these inventions include the cash register, the stepladder, microfiche, waterproof cellophane, pop top beverage cans, the movie projector, space food, parking meters, the airplane supercharger, the automobile self-starter, gas masks, and the parachute.

Dayton has received the All-America City Award three times.

The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton on August 19, 1934.

Political structure

Dayton City Hall.
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Dayton City Hall.

In 1913, Dayton became the first large city in the United States to adopt the council-manager system of city government. In this system, the mayor is merely the chairperson of the city commission and has one vote on the commission just like the other commissioners. The commission chooses a city manager, who holds administrative authority over the city government.

As of January 2006:

Dayton City Commission
Old county courthouse, an example of Greek revival architecture; completed 1850.
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Old county courthouse, an example of Greek revival architecture; completed 1850.
Civil War memorial in Dayton, Ohio. Electric trolley bus cables are visible in the photo.
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Civil War memorial in Dayton, Ohio. Electric trolley bus cables are visible in the photo.

Dayton Municipal Court
Dayton Public Schools Board of Education

Urban design and architecture

Unlike many Midwestern cities of its age, Dayton has very broad and straight downtown streets (generally two full lanes in each direction), facilitating access to the downtown even after the automobile became popular. The main reason for the broad streets was that Dayton was a marketing and shipping center from its beginning: streets were broad to enable wagons drawn by teams of three to four pairs of oxen to turn around. In addition, some of today's streets were once barge canals flanked by draw-paths.

A courthouse building was constructed in downtown Dayton in 1888 to supplement Dayton's original Neoclassical courthouse, which still stands. This second, "new" courthouse has since been replaced with new facilities as well as a park.

Dayton's nine historic neighborhoods — Oregon, Wright-Dunbar, Dayton View, Grafton Hill, McPherson Town, Webster Station, Huffman, Saint Anne's Hill, and South Park — feature mostly single-family houses and mansions in the Neoclassical, Jacobethan, Tudor Revival, English Gothic, Chateauesque, Craftsman, Queen Anne, Georgian Revival, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, Shingle, Prairie, Mission Revival, Eastlake/Italianate, American Foursquare, and Federal styles of architecture.[link]

The two tallest buildings in the Dayton skyline are the Kettering Tower and the MeadWestvaco Tower. Kettering Tower was originally Winters Tower, the headquarters of Winters Bank. The building was renamed after Virginia Kettering when Winters was merged into BankOne.

Dayton Peace Accords

The Dayton Agreement, a peace accord between the parties to the hostilities of the conflict in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia, was negotiated in the Dayton area. From November 1, 1995 to November 21, 1995, negotiations took place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.

Cultural and recreational activities

Dayton is home to the Dayton Art Institute, a museum of fine arts. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is at nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park commemorates the lives and achievements of Dayton natives, Orville and Wilbur Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park is located on the south end of Dayton. SunWatch is the location of a 12th century American Indian village that has been partially reconstructed and includes a museum where visitors can learn about the Indian history of the Miami Valley.

Dayton is also home to a variety of performing arts venues. The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center at the corner of Second and Main, is the home performance venue of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dayton Opera. In addition to Philharmonic and Opera performances, the Schuster Center hosts concerts, lectures, traveling Broadway shows, and is a popular spot for weddings and other events. The historic Victoria Theatre, located at the corner of First and Main, hosts concerts, traveling Broadway shows, ballet, a summertime classic film series, and much more. The Loft Theatre, also on Main Street, in the home of the Human Race Theatre Company.

South of the city of Dayton is the Fraze Pavilion which hosts many nationally and internationally known musicians for concerts, located in the community of Kettering. Also south of downtown, on the banks of the Great Miami River, is the University of Dayton Arena, home venue for the University of Dayton Flyers basketball teams and the location of various other events and concerts. North of Dayton is the Hara Arena and the Nutter Center, venues that frequently host sporting events and concerts. The Nutter Center is the home arena for athletics of Wright State University and the Dayton Bombers ECHL hockey team.

Fifth Third Field is the home of the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team. The Dragons have been popular within the Dayton community since moving from Rockford, Illinois for the 2000 season.

From 1996 to 1998, Dayton hosted the National Folk Festival.

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association annually hosts North America's largest hamfest at Hara Arena. Amateur radio operators are commonly referred to as "hams" with as many as 25,000 traveling from around the world to attend this convention.

Adult minor league/amateur sports

Dayton has a minor league baseball team, the Dayton Dragons, and a minor league ice hockey team, the Dayton Bombers. The city also has an amateur women's ice hockey team, the [Dayton Fangs], established in August 2005. [The Gem City Rollergirls], a women's roller derby league, began forming in early 2006.

The sculpture Flyover (David Evans Black, 1996) on Main Street downtown. The sculpture tracks the path of the Wright Brothers first powered airplane flight.
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The sculpture Flyover (David Evans Black, 1996) on Main Street downtown. The sculpture tracks the path of the Wright Brothers first powered airplane flight.

Media

The principal general-circulation daily newspaper in the region is the Dayton Daily News, which is owned by Cox Communications. [Christian Citizen USA] (currently doing business as Citizen USA), which claims to uphold "traditional values" and distances itself from secular media[link], is a newspaper with circulation in greater Dayton and its surrounding suburban communities. The [Dayton City Paper] is a free weekly circulation newspaper. The Kettering-Oakwood Times is a weekly with circulation primarily in the south suburban communities.

Television

The Dayton metro area's broadcast television stations are as follows: The Dayton television market is ranked the #59 [Nielsen DMA] in the United States.

Radio

AM format

FM format

Some Cincinnati and other southwest Ohio radio and television stations can be received in parts of Dayton, as well.

Public transportation

The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) operates public bus routes in the Dayton metro area. In addition to routes covered by traditional diesel-powered buses, RTA has a number of electric trolley bus routes. In continuous operation since 1888, Dayton's is the longest-running of the five remaining trolley bus systems in the U.S.

Air transportation is available via the James M. Cox Dayton International Airport, located in nearby Vandalia, just north of Dayton proper.

Liberty Cab (in operation since 1929), Checker Cab and Airport Checker Cab all provide taxicab service throughout the Dayton metro area.

Education

Dayton is home to two major universities: the University of Dayton, a private, Catholic institution founded in 1850 by the Marianist order, and the public Wright State University, which became a state university in 1967. Wright State University has the only medical school in the Dayton area. The University of Dayton has the only American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school in the Dayton area, [UDSL]

Dayton is also home to one of the country's leading community colleges, Sinclair Community College (founded as a YMCA college in 1887), located in central downtown Dayton. Miami Jacobs College is another junior college in Dayton.

Notable Natives

Actors
Artists
Astronauts
Athletes
Authors
Entertainers
Entrepreneurs
Musicians
Politicians
Other

Geography

Dayton is located at [39°45′46″N, 83°11′48″W] (39.762708, -84.196665)[Geographic references#1GR1]. The city sits in the Miami River Valley, north of Cincinnati, well south of Toledo, south-west of Columbus, and east of Richmond, Indiana, in the southwest quadrant of the state. Most official and government designations place it in west-central Ohio (a term which colloquially often refers to Lima, Ohio). It is at the confluence of the Great Miami River, the Stillwater and Mad rivers, and Wolf Creek. Area natives seldom use the phrase 'greater Dayton". They affectionately refer to the region as the Miami Valley, which is meant to mean all areas between the cities of Sidney and Middletown (north and south), and Springfield to the Indiana border (east west).

Following the flood of 1913, the Miami Conservancy District was established in 1914 to build dams and levees and to dredge and straighten channels to control flooding of the Miami and surrounding rivers.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 146.7 km² (56.6 mi²). 144.5 km² (55.8 mi²) of it is land and 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it (1.55%) is water.

Demographics

Note: the following demographic information applies only to the city of Dayton proper. For other Dayton-area communities, see their respective articles.
As of the census[Geographic references#2GR2] of 2000, there were 166,179 people, 67,409 households, and 37,614 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,150.3/km² (2,979.4/mi²). There were 77,321 housing units at an average density of 535.2/km² (1,386.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 53.40% White, 43.10%% Black or African American, 0.30% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.70% from other races, and 1.83% from two or more races. 1.58% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Households

There were 67,409 households out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.2% were married couples living together, 20.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.2% were non-families. 36.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.04.

Age structure and gender ratio

The age structure of Dayton's population is: The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there were 93.1 males, while For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.

Income

The median income for a household in the city was $27,423, and the median income for a family was $34,978. Males had a median income of $30,816 versus $24,937 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,547. About 18.2% of families and 23.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.0% of those under age 18 and 15.3% of those age 65 or over.

Points of interest

Museums

Sister Cities

Dayton has five sister cities, as designated by [Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI)]:

External links

 State of Ohio

History | Government | Cities | Villages | Townships | Colleges and universities

Capital Columbus
Regions Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau - Glaciated Allegheny Plateau - Glacial till plains (Ohio)>Glacial till plains - Lake Erie - Lake Erie Islands - Black Swamp - Miami Valley - Western Reserve - Northwest Ohio
Metropolitan areas Akron - Canton/Massillon - Cincinnati/Middletown (Greater Cincinnati) - Cleveland/Elyria/Mentor (Greater Cleveland) - Columbus - Dayton - Lima - Mansfield - Sandusky - Springfield - Toledo - Youngstown/Warren/Boardman
Counties Adams - Allen - Ashland - Ashtabula - Athens - Auglaize - Belmont - Brown - Butler - Carroll - Champaign - Clark - Clermont - Clinton - Columbiana - Coshocton - Crawford - Cuyahoga - Darke - Defiance - Delaware - Erie - Fairfield - Fayette - Franklin - Fulton - Gallia - Geauga - Greene - Guernsey - Hamilton - Hancock - Hardin - Harrison - Henry - Highland - Hocking - Holmes - Huron - Jackson - Jefferson - Knox - Lake - Lawrence - Licking - Logan - Lorain - Lucas - Madison - Mahoning - Marion - Medina - Meigs - Mercer - Miami - Monroe - Montgomery - Morgan - Morrow - Muskingum - Noble - Ottawa - Paulding - Perry - Pickaway - Pike - Portage - Preble - Putnam - Richland - Ross - Sandusky - Scioto - Seneca - Shelby - Stark - Summit - Trumbull - Tuscarawas - Union - Van Wert - Vinton - Warren - Washington - Wayne - Williams - Wood - Wyandot

 

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